Merci Suárez Changes Gears

Write an essay that analyzes Merci as a character. Select three of her most important character traits. In your opinion, how do these traits shape a specific theme within the novel?

Merci Suárez Changes Gears is a coming of age story. Identify how Merci is challenged by various life milestones, including puberty, entrance into middle school, the navigation of complex social structures, and the development of sexuality. Choose one milestone and use direct quotes to track Merci’s coming-of-age journey in relation to that milestone. How does Merci learn to grow and change with the new challenges that life brings her, and what important lessons does she learn?

What is Edna’s role in the novel? Name a specific theme that is communicated through Edna’s character. Use direct quotes to support your point of view.

Do you think that Merci Suárez Changes Gears is a realistic book? Why, or why not? Write an essay, complete with direct citations, that supports your perspective.

Use direct quotes to track Medina’s depiction of Lolo’s advancing Alzheimer’s disease throughout the narrative. Why did Medina choose to reveal Lolo’s disease gradually, and why did she plot it so that Merci was out of the loop about the reality of Lolo’s disease? How do these plot elements influence Medina’s thematic messages about Alzheimer’s?

Write an essay that compares Merci’s home life with her school life. What are the unique struggles that Merci encounters as she is asked to fully occupy such contrasting realms?

What is Medina’s thematic message about the lived experience of class oppression? What insights about the individual and interpersonal experience of class oppression does Medina communicate through her depiction of Merci’s and the Suárez family’s working-class experience?

Contrast Merci at the beginning of the narrative against the Merci that the narrative concludes with. What has Merci learned about herself, about her school, and/or about her family? How has she learned these things? What are the key elements of her struggle as a character throughout the narrative, and how does she reach a place of triumph, confidence, and peace?